A suspected overdose has claimed the life of a 20-year-old man who attended Victoria’s Beyond The Valley festival.
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Victoria Police state the Mansfield Park man was airlifted from the Warragul event on Saturday in a critical condition.
The man died in hospital on Tuesday morning. His death is not being treated as suspicious, a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
ABC reports two other men were also hospitalised in critical conditions after suspected drug overdoses at the event. One has been discharged, and the other remains in a stable condition.
The Victorian man’s death comes days after 22-year-old Brisbane man Josh Tam died from a suspected drug overdose at New South Wales’ Lost Paradise festival.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports he was transported from the Gosford festival to Gosford Hospital around 8pm on Saturday night but died soon after.
Drug law reform advocates have spoken out after the deaths, stating festivals should be allowed to facilitate pill-testing and other harm minimisation strategies to help protect revellers.
Alex Wodak, head of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, tweeted “let’s hope [politicians] on the side of hope rather than continuing a policy that keeps delivering more deaths of healthy young people.”
Despite organisers of a 2018 pill-testing trial at the ACT’s Groovin The Moo festival hailing their efforts as a success, the state governments of Victoria and New South Wales are both currently opposed to allowing similar operations at music festivals.
